We are a group of makers who enjoy spending nights and weekends together, tinkering with tecnology and other stuff, here at Verona FabLab (Verona is a city in the North of Italy) .With this instructable we want to describe the project we've developed together for Intel Maker contest: the Wash Alert system.

We wanted to tackle the problem of leaving clothes for a long period in the washing machine, after the washing cycle has ended.

So we had an idea: placing a current sensor on the machine power cable.

When no more current is flowing through the sensor, after an adjustable timeout, the Wash Alert will send you a notification via telegram or e-mail to remind you to remove your clothes from the washing machine in order to dry them out.

This application isn't only for washmachine, but is extensible at all appliances e.g. fridge, oven, or any other type of electrical equipement that you want to monitor.

For a current sensor you can use this https://moderndevice.com/product/current-sensor/ . The particularity of this sensor is not necessary cutting the power cable for measure the current, it's possible measure the current indirectly for a hall effect.

For more technical details please consult the manufacturer's website.

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Step 1: Hardware

Wash alert is built on intel Edison with Arduino breakout Kit. We used Grove starter kit plus for managing all the I/O such as the current sensor and the water sensor.

With a coil relay you can even command a solenoid valve for a waterstop function. When arrive the message ending wash you have a possibility of send a messag to wasalert for closing the water on inlet of washmachine.

We used a buzzer and a blue led to announce the washing cycle is ended.

The box of Edison it's made with plexiglas laser cutted.

Then we screw the intel edison on the plexi box as shown in the image above.

Next mounting a grove shield and all the grove sensors and actuators of starter kit plus:

the buzzer on port D6

the coil on port D8

the led on port D3

the current sensor on port A1

the water flow sensor on port D4

(optionals) in case you desiderate monitoring a room temperature, the temperature sensor on port A0

a grove cable with a modified connector for connecting the current sensor to a shield

Step 2: Software

We built the wash alert software on Node-Red, ideal for managing hardware such as Intel Edison.

When no more current is flowing through the sensor, after an adjustable timeout, the Wash Alert will send you a notification via telegram or e-mail to remind you to remove your clothes from the washing machine in order to dry them out.

This application can also have an ecological information function.

To increase people's awareness on the use of water and energy, we added the water and energy power consumption of the washing cycle to the notifications.